Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) role as chief watchdog for the House GOP has put him in the awkward position of investigating programs that were strongly supported by many of his Republican colleagues.

Whether it’s the Energy Department loans that Issa and scores of other Republican lawmakers lobbied for on behalf of companies in their home states, or a series of botched gun-tracking operations that used controversial tactics begun under President George W. Bush, Issa has had to strike a balance between shining the spotlight on government inefficiencies and not making Republicans look bad. . .

For more than six months, Issa has been investigating the botched gun-tracking operation, Fast and Furious, which oversaw the sale of thousands of firearms to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels in the Southwest border region.

The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was removed, and the U.S. attorney for Arizona resigned, but Issa has vowed to uncover all of those responsible for approving the controversial and highly frowned upon “gun walking” tactics employed in the operation.

Throughout the course of his investigation, however, it was brought to light that a very similar operation, Wide Receiver, was run using nearly identical tactics under Bush.

Issa has not devoted much public attention to the Wide Receiver case so far, though he’s said he would look into it as he has continued to pressure the Obama administration for answers on Fast and Furious, which might have contributed to the death of at least one Border Patrol agent.

5 comments:

"Throughout the course of his investigation, however, it was brought to light that a very similar operation, Wide Receiver, was run using nearly identical tactics under Bush."

Very similar?

Nearly identical?

Your DNA and mine are "nearly identical" (98%) to that of a chimpanzee. I would guess that even as challenged a reported as Jordy Yager would agree that small differences can be very important to outcome.

In fact one "small difference" between "Wide Receiver" and "Fast and Furious" is critical in determining the intent of ATF and DOJ in the two operations. In Wide Receiver the Feds actually attempted to track the firearms after they came into the hands of the straw buyers. In Fast and Furious there was deliberate action to make sure the firearms were not tracked. Since one of the whistleblowers' allegations is that Fast and Furious was an attempt to pad gun trace statistics to justify increased federal gun control, determining ATF/DOJ's intent becomes crucial. Wide receiver was indeed a "botched sting". Fast and Furious was conspiracy to further infringe on our rights guaranteed by The Second Amendment.

Very Similar?

Nearly identical?

I wonder if Jordy Yager would be offended if we said he was "very similar" or "nearly identical" to a chimpanzee.

first, it can't be "botched gun-tracking operations" as there was never any attempt to track weapons in F&F.second, "Issa has not devoted much public attention to the Wide Receiver case so far, though he’s said he would look into it as he has continued to pressure the Obama administration for answers on Fast and Furious, which might have contributed to the death of at least one Border Patrol agent." Might have? ATF and FBI have acknowledged that 2 weapons found at the scene were part of F&F. There's evidence of a third, but they haven't admitted that one... yet. Might have... this "reporter" might have once been an intelligent human, but there is no evidence of that.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.